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56. Harmodius and Aristogiton, both citizens of Athens, had contracted a very strict friendship for each other; and resolved to revenge the injuries which should be committed against either, with common resentment. Hipparchus being naturally amo rous, debauched the sister of Harmodius; and afterwards published her shame, as she was about to walk in one of the sacred processions; alleging, that she was not in a condition to assist at the ceremony.

57. Such a complicated indignity naturally excited the resentment of two friends, who formed a fixed resolution of destroying the tyrants, or falling in the attempt. Willing, however, to wait the most favourable opportunity, they deferred their purpose to the feast of the Panathanea, in which the ceremony required that all the citizens should attend in armour.

58. For their greater security, they admitted only a small number of their friends into the secret of their design; conceiving, that upon the first emotion they should not want for abettors. Thus resolved, the day being come, they went early into the market-place, each armed with a dagger, and stedfast to his purpose.

59. In the mean time, Hippias was seen issuing with his followers from the palace, to give orders, without the city, to the guards for the intended ceremony. As the two friends continued to follow him at a little distance, they perceived one of those to whom they had communicated the design, talking very familiarly with him, which made them apprehend their plot was betrayed.

60. Eager, therefore, to execute their designs, they were preparing to strike the blow, but recollected that the real aggressor would thus go unpunished. They once more, therefore, returned into the city, willing to begin their revenge upon the author of their indignities.

61. They were not long in quest of Hipparchus: they met him upon their return, and rushing upon him, despatched him with their daggers without delay; but were, soon after, themselves slain in the tumult. Hippias hearing of what was done, to prevent farther disorders, got all those disarmed whom he in the least suspected of being privy to the design; and then meditated revenge.

62. Among the friends of the late assertors of freedom, was one Leona, a courtezan, who, by the charms of her beauty, and her skill in playing on the harp, had captivated some of the conspirators, and was supposed to be deeply engaged in the design. As the tyrant, for such the late attempt had rendered hup, was conscious that nothing was concealed from this wo

man, he ordered her to be put to the torture, in order to extort the names of the accomplices. But she bore all the cruelty of their torments with invincible constancy; and, lest she should in the agony of her pain be induced to a confession, she bit off her own tongue and spit it in the tyrant's face.

63. In this manner she died, faithful to the cause of liberty, showing the world a remarkable example of constancy in her sex. The Athenians would not suffer the memory of so heroic an action to pass into oblivion. They erected a statue to her memory, in which a lioness was represented without a tongue.

64. In the mean time Hippias put no bounds to his indignation. A rebellious people ever makes a suspicious tyrant. Numbers of citizens were put to death; and to guard himself for the future against a like enterprise, he endeavoured to establish his

power by foreign alliances. He gave his daughter in marriage to the son of the tyrant of Lampsacus; he cultivated a correspondence with Artaphernes, governor of Sardis, and he endeavoured to gain the friendship of the Lacedæmonians, who were at the time the most powerful people of Greece.

65. But he was supplanted in those very alliances from which he hoped the greatest assistance. The family of the Alcmaonidæ, who from the beginning of the revolution had been banished from Athens, endeavoured to undermine his interests at Sparta, and they at length succeeded. Being possessed of great riches, and also very liberal in their distribution, among other public services, they obtained liberty to rebuild the temple at Delphos, which they fronted in a most magnificent manner with Parian marble. So noble a munificence was not without a proper acknowledgment of gratitude from the priestess of Apollo, who, willing to oblige them, made her oracle the echo of their desires.

66. As there was nothing, therefore, which this family so ardently desired as the downfal of regal power in Athens, the priestess seconded their intentions; and whenever the Spartans came to consult the oracle, no promise was ever made of the gods' assistance but upon condition that Athens should be set free. This order was so often repeated by the oracle, that the Spartans at last resolved to obey. Their first attempts were, however, unsuccessful; the troops they sent against the tyrant 、were repulsed with loss.

67. A second effort succeeded. Athens was besieged; and the children of Hippias were made prisoners, as they were secretly conveying them to a place of safety out of the city. To redeem these from slavery, the father was obliged to come to an accommodation, by which he consented to give up his preten

sions to his sovereign power; and to depart out of the Athenian territories in five days.

68. Thus, Athens was once more set free from its tyrants; and obtained its liberty the very same year that the kings were expelled from Rome. The family of Alcamon were chiefly instrumental; but the people seemed fonder of 3496. acknowledging their obligations to the two friends who

A. M.

struck the first blow.

69. The names of Harmodius and Aristogiton were held in the highest respect in all succeeding ages; and scarce considered inferior even to the gods themselves. Their statues were erected in the market-place, an honour which had never been rendered to any before; and, gazing upon these, the people caught a love for freedom; and a detestation for tyranny, which neither time nor terrors could ever after remove.

CHAPTER IV.

A short Survey of the State of Greece, previous to the Persian War.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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 of military glory.

4. 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 show 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

There

7. Their orators, their philosophers, and their poets, had already given lessons of politeness to mankind; and their generals, though engaged only in petty conflicts with their neighbours, had begun to practise new stratagems in war. were three kinds of inhabitants in Athens: citizens, strangers, and servants. Their number usually amounted to twenty-one thousand citizens, ten thousand strangers, and from forty to three-score thousand servants.

8. A citizen could only be such by birth, or adoption. To be a natural citizen 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.

9. The quality of a citizen 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.

10. 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 the 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.

11. Of servants, there were some free, and others slaves, who had been taken in war, or bought of such as trafficked in them. The Athenians were as remarkable for their lenity to these unhappy men, as the Spartans were noted for their fierceness and rigidity. There was even an asylum for slaves where the bones of Theseus had been interred; and that asylum subsisted for near two thousand years.

12. 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 masters, they kept the remainder for themselves; and made a stock of it at their own disposal.

13. 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.

14. The revenues of this city, according to Aristophanes, amounted to two thousand talents, or about three hundred thousand pounds sterling. 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 capitulation levied upon the inhabitants of the country, as well natives as strangers, and from fines laid upon different misdemeanors.

15. 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 the republic, the greatest part was consumed in frivolous expenses, games, feasts, and shows, which cost immense sums, and were of no manner of utility to the state.

16. But the greatest glory of Athens, was its being the school and abode of polite earning, arts, and sciences. The study of poetry, eloquence, philosophy, and mathematics, began there, and came almost to their utmost perfection. The young people were sent first to learn grammar, under masters, who taught them regularly, and upon the principles of their own language.

17. Eloquence was studied with still greater attention, as in that popular government it opened the way to the highest employments. To the study of rhetoric was annexed that of phi

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