which was totally destroyed in the different battles of Salamis, Platæa, and Mycale. After these victories, the Greeks continued still to carry on the war with Persia, chiefly by descents on their coasts, till peace was concluded in the reign of Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes.

The Spartans were at this time, the acknowledged leaders of the Greek confederacy, but their king, Pausanias, carrying himself proudly and contemptuously to the allies, they put themselves under the patronage of Athens. From this time, the Athenians held the decided ascendancy at sea, and over those Greek states and colonies which were approached by sea. At first, they used their influence with equity and moderation; but gradually feeling their strength, they became more haughty in their conduct, and more dictatorial in exacting the services of their allies. The result was, that the allies of the Athenians eventually became subjects, from whom the Athenians regularly exacted tribute but they were impatient subjects, and ready to avail themselves of any opportunity to emancipate themselves.

The Spartans eyed the growing power of Athens with jealousy, and were prepared to embrace the first plausible occasion of going to war with it. Such an occasion was not long wanting. The government of Athens was yearly becoming more democratical, and the management of the affairs of the state falling under the influence of demagogues; these, to obtain influence, or retain it, were under the necessity of proposing popular measures. Cimon, the son of the celebrated Miltiades, himself a great military leader, attained to the chief influence in Athens; and being a man of immense property, he secured his popularity, by spending it freely among the people. Others, who followed him, had not the same means of bribing them; but they, to supply this defect, proposed to the people, to take for themselves the same indulgences out of the public treasury. They voted to themselves money for attending on the great councils of the nation. This naturally threw the power over public affairs into the

hands of the most worthless of the people, whose ear was always open to whatever proposals their orators might make, for the purpose of pampering their idleness, or feeding their vanity; and that orator, who flattered them most, was sure to be the most popular, and to have most power. In these circumstances, nothing could exceed the folly, or the flagitiousness of many of the measures adopted by the Athenians. Thus corrupted, they became idle and dissolute; and were under the necessity of supporting themselves by exactions made on other states. This roused the impatience and enmity of their allies; and the Lacedæmonians, on the watch for an excuse to attack them, soon found one in the discontent of the Athenian subjects.

These were the circumstances that led to the celebrated Peloponnesian war, which, for nearly thirty years, raged in Greece, with an animosity, a reckless barbarity, and regardlessness of public faith, scarcely to be paralleled in the history of any other country. On the one side were ranged all the states of Peloponnesus, except Argos and Achaia, which were neutral; and all the states of northern Greece, except Thessaly and Acarnania. On the other, the Athenians had with them the islands and maritime towns. At the head of the Peloponnesian party, was Lacedæmon, which was one of the most oligarchical states in Greece; yet, such had been the oppressive conduct of republican Athens to all those states that were under its power, that the Lacedæmonians were enabled to represent the war as one waged by them for the liberties of Greece. The war was carried on, at first, by inroads of the Peloponnesians into Attica, which the Athenians, unable to resist, retaliated, by descents on the coast of Peloponnesus. Pericles, an able statesman and general, was at the head of the Athenian affairs at the commencement of the war; but, in the second year of it, he died, and then the government fell into the hands of men of an inferior description. This war between the great patron of oligarchy on the one side, and of democracy on the other, kindled strife and civil war in many of those states of Greece, in which the parties were nearly

balanced. The oligarchical parties manœuvred to bring their states into connexion with Lacedæmon, that they might govern through means of their influence; and the democratic parties wished, for a similar reason, to be connected with Athens. In some of these civil contests, particularly in that which took place in Corcyra, the scenes of treachery and cold deliberate cruelty were hideous beyond description.

Several times, when one of the parties was reduced to straits, overtures of peace were made, but rejected by the opposite party; till, in the tenth year of the war, a temporary peace was concluded. It was, however, only a breathing time; and the struggle soon recommenced. At this time, the affairs of Athens were considerably under the influence of a young man, one of the most remarkable characters of Grecian History-Alcibiades. He was of noble birth, of great wealth, great talents, most accomplished address; but artful, ambitious, profligate, and utterly destitute of principle. He was a pupil of the celebrated philosopher, Socrates, who flourished at this time. Alcibiades, impatient of the narrow sphere of warfare in which the Athenians were engaged, prevailed on them to attempt a foreign conquest in Sicily, holding out to them many plausible reasons for the enterprise. He was put in chief command; but the people were jealous of him. He had enemies at home, who plotted against him in his absence. One result was, that he was removed from the head of the armament, and forced into exile; the next result was, that the expedition totally failed, and its failure involved the ruin of the Athenian fleet and army. The Athenians made powerful efforts for the maintenance of their influence and their liberty, and might probably have succeeded in recovering their prosperity, had not the commander of their fleet permitted himself to be surprised in the harbour of Egospotamos, in the Hellespont, by the Lacedæmonian fleet, under Lysander; when the Athenian fleet was totally destroyed. This sealed the fate of Athens. The Greek fleet sailed to the unhappy city, blockaded it, and at length, compelled the Athenians to surrender.

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They then proceeded to demolish the walls, which operation was conducted to the sound of musical instruments as if celebrating the recovery of the liberties of Greece. They also changed the constitution, and, instead of a republic, put it under the command of thirty of the aristocracy; who are usually known by the designation of the thirty tyrants. These thirty oligarchists soon abused their power so much, that they forced into exile a large proportion of the influential citizens; and the people, submitting with reluctance to their oppressors, the exiles, under Thrasybulus, secretly assembled, obtained possession first of the port, and afterwards the city, and proclaimed anew the democratical constitution, B.C. 401. In the following year, Conon obtained a fleet from Artaxerxes Mnemon, the Persian monarch, with which he defeated the Lacedæmonian fleet; and, afterwards sailing for Athens, he rebuilt the walls, and thus raised Athens to nearly its former greatness. It was at this time that the Greek mercenaries engaged themselves in the service of Cyrus, the brother of Artaxerxes, to dethrone that monarch; in which expedition Cyrus was killed, and the Greeks, under Xenophon, performed their celebrated retreat. Meanwhile, the contests between the oligarchies and the democracies of the Greek states were proceeding with their usual violence. In the midst of one of these struggles in Thebes, two men of singular talents attained to the chief influence; placed their city, for a time, at the head of the affairs of Greece; and permanently changed the relative position of its different parties. These were Epaminondas, and Pelopidas. The democratic party being predominant in Thebes, a war broke out between them and Lacedæmon, in which Epaminondas, by a change in the usual mode of conducting battles, totally defeated the Spartan army with inferior force. This first of those battles, which broke the power of Sparta, was fought at Leuctra, B.C. 371. Epaminondas afterwards invaded the Laconian territory, ravaged the country, and built a city in the neighbour'hood of Sparta, which he called Messini, and gave it to the Messenians, whom the Spartans had kept for several

centuries' in the most rigorous bondage. This proved an effectual curb on the power and prosperity of Lacedæmon. The war still continuing, Epaminondas again entered the Peloponnesus, and again defeated the Lacedæmonians, near Mantinea, B.C. 361. Thus the Spartans were deprived of that preponderating influence, which they had exerted over the affairs of Greece, for nearly 500 years; but Epaminondas was himself killed at that battle; and, with him, vanished the power of Thebes.

Meanwhile, Macedon, hitherto scarcely known in Grecian history, was rising to power and eminence. Philip came to the throne, B.C. 360. The situation of parties in Greece furnished him with a favourable opportunity of interfering with its affairs. By a series of able manoeuvres, partly military, and partly diplomatical, he gradually extended his influence, till he was elected general of the combined Greek army. It was to resist his growing influence, that the celebrated Demosthenes exerted his unexampled eloquence. At length Athens and Macedon came into direct conflict with one another; and the result was, that the Athenian army was defeated at Chæronea. This battle, which annihilated for ever the independence of the Greek states, was fought, B.C. 338.

Philip was now the first potentate of Greece, and began almost immediately to make preparations for invading Persia with the united Greek army. But, in the midst of his preparations, he was assassinated by a young Macedonian of rank, leaving his crown and his enterprise to his son Alexander.

On Alexander's coming to the throne, his first care was to establish his authority in Greece. Some symptoms of resistance to him were manifested in Athens and Thebes; but he suddenly appeared in the heart of Greece with an army, and crushed all opposition. Thebes held out against him; but a skirmish taking place between his troops and the Thebans, before the walls of the city, which brought on a general engagement, the Thebans were defeated and fled. The troops of Alexander following closely, entered the city