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CHAPTER IV.

A SHORT SURVEY OF THE STATE OF GREECE PREVIOUS TO THE PERSIAN WAR.

HITHERTO we have seen the states of Greece in constant fluctuation, different states rising, and others disappearing, one petty people opposed to another, and both swallowed up by a third. Every city emerging from the ancient form of government which was originally imposed upon it, and by degrees acquiring greater freedom. We have seen the introduction of written laws, and the benefits they produced, by giving stability to government.

During these struggles for power among their neighbouring states, and for freedom at home, the moral sciences, the arts of eloquence, poetry, arms,were making a rapid progress among them, and those institutions which they originally borrowed from the Egyptians, were every day receiving signal improvements. As Greece was now composed of several small republics, bordering upon each other, and differing in their laws, characters, and customs, this was a continual source of emulation; and every city was not only desirous of warlike superiority, but also of excelling in all the arts of peace and refinement. Hence they were always under arms,

and continually exercised in war, while their philosophers and poets travelled from city to city, and by their exhortations and songs, warmed them with a love of virtue, and with an ardour for military glory. These peaceful and military accomplishments raised them to their highest pitch of grandeur, and they now only wanted an enemy worthy of their arms to shew the world their superiority. The Persian monarchy, the greatest at that time in the world, soon offered itself as their opponent, and the contest ended with its total subversion.

But as Greece was continually changing not only its government, but its customs, as in one century it presented a very different picture from what it offered in the preceding, it will be necessary to take a second view of this confederacy of little republics previous to their contests with Persia, as, by comparing their strength with that of their opponent, we shall find how much wisdom, discipline, and valour, are superior to numbers, wealth, and ostentation.

Foremost in this confederacy we may reckon the city of Athens, commanding the little state of Attica, their whole dominions scarce exceeding the largest of our English counties in circumference. But what was wanting in extent was made up by the citizens being inured to war, and impressed with the highest ideas of their own superiority. Their orators, their philosophers, and their poets, had already given lessons F 2

of politeness to mankind; and their generals, though engaged only in petty conflicts with their neighbours, had begun to practise new stratagems in war. There were three kinds of inhabitants in Athens, citizens, strangers, and servants. Their numbers usually amounted to twenty-one thousand citizens, ten thousand strangers, and from forty to three score thousand servants.

A citizen could only be such by birth, or adoption. To be a natural denizen of Athens, it was necessary to be born of a father and mother both Athenians, and both free. The people could confer the freedom of the city upon strangers, and those whom they had so adopted, enjoyed almost the same rights and privileges as the natural citizens. The quality of citizens of Athens was sometimes granted in honour and gratitude to those who merited well of the state, as to Hippocrates the physician; and even kings sometimes canvassed that title for themselves and their children. When the young men attained the age of twenty, they were enrolled upon the list of citizens, after having taken an oath, and in virtue of this they became members of the state.

Strangers or foreigners, who came to settle at Athens, for the sake of commerce, or of exercising any trade, had no share in government, nor votes in the assemblies of the people. They put themselves under the protection of some citizen, and upon that account were obliged to render him certain duties and services. They paid a

yearly tribute to the state of twelve drachmas, and in default of payment were made slaves, and exposed to sale.

Of servants, there were some free, and others slaves, who had been taken in war, or bought of such as trafficked in them. The former were freemen, who, through indigence, were driven to receive wages; and, while they were in this state, they had no vote in the assembly. Slaves were absolutely the property of their masters, and, as such, were used as they thought proper. They were forbidden to wear clothes, or to cut their hair like their masters, and, which indeed is amazing, Solon excluded them from the pleasure or privilege of pæderasty, as if that had been honourable. They were likewise debarred from anointing and perfuming themselves, and from worshipping certain deities: they were not allowed to be called by honourable names, and in most other respects were treated as inferior animals. Their masters stigmatized them, that is, branded them with letters in the forehead, and elsewhere: however, there was even an asylum for slaves, where the bones of Theseus had been interred; and that asylum subsisted for near two thousand years. When slaves were treated with too much rigour and inhumanity, they might bring their masters to justice; who, if the fact were sufficiently proved, were obliged to sell them to another master. They could even ransom themselves against their master's consent,

when they had laid up money enough for that purpose; for out of what they got by their labour, after having paid a certain proportion to their master, they kept the remainder for themselves, and made a stock of it at their own disposal. Private persons, when they were satisfied with their services, often gave them their liberty; and when the necessity of the times obliged the state to make their greatest levies, they were enrolled among the troops, and from thence were ever after free.

The revenues of this city, according to Aristophanes, amounted to two thousand talents, or about three hundred thousand pounds of our money. They were generally gathered from the taxes upon agriculture, the sale of woods, the produce of mines, the contributions paid them by their allies, a capitation levied upon the inhabitants of the country, as well natives as strangers, and from fines laid upon different misdemeanors. The application of these revenues was in paying the troops, both by land and sea, building and fitting out fleets, keeping up and repairing public buildings, temples, walls, ports, and citadels. But in the decline of their republic, the greatest part was consumed in frivolous expences, games, feasts, and shows, which cost immense sums, and were of no manner of utility to the state.

But the greatest glory of Athens, was its being the school and abode of polite learning,

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