CHAPTER VI.

Greece-Peloponnesian War-Philip, King of Macedon-Alexander the Great-Colony of Massilia-Pytheas-Ultima Thule.

THE events which followed the final retirement of the Persians from the Grecian territory, although replete with interest, do not come within our present object. It will be sufficient simply to recall to our readers' minds a few of the leading circumstances, as connecting links in our narration. Athens was rebuilt with a degree of magnificence far surpassing her former condition-it being the care of Themistocles, to whom were confided the works, to make it at the same time both a great military and naval station. In less than twelve months, the new city was surrounded with lofty walls formed of huge blocks of marble; the Piræus, which was the harbour of Athens, and stood about three miles from the city, was made the finest naval arsenal of the ancient world, being capable of accommodating a fleet of four hundred vessels; and the interior of the capital was splendidly embellished. All this magnificence, however, only tended to inflate the pride of the Athenians: made arrogant by success, they fomented discord among their neighbours, that they might profit by their quarrels ; and it is sad to trace how gradually, yet surely, they

sped onwards to their ruin, when luxury and intemperance usurped the places of moderation and virtue.

The Spartans had viewed with considerable annoyance the spirit of exclusiveness assumed by the Athenians, and rightly judged that the strong fortifications raised about their capital owed their origin as much to a desire of acquiring superiority over the neighbouring states, as from fear of a new foreign invasion. Still they acted together in pursuing their enemies, the Persians, to their own strongholds, and in punishing those colonies which had joined the latter in the late invasion. But when these duties were terminated, after numerous engagements both at sea and on shore, in which the Persian arms were again and again compelled to succumb to the victorious Greeks-when all foreign enemies were swept from their path, and they found themselves undisturbed masters of the sea-with a perverse spirit, which it is painful to contemplate after such acts of patriotism and endurance, they turned their arms against each other, and in the course of years sullied their fame, and finally ruined their country, by the cruel process of civil war. A private quarrel between the little island of Corcyra (Corfu) and Corinth, soon led to a general engagement of all the Grecian States; and as Athens had rendered herself particularly obnoxious to the rest, their whole power was turned to her subjection. Such was the Peloponnesian war, which, after twenty-eight years of bloodshed and disaster, terminated in the total ruin of Athens.

It was during this period, that Syracuse, in Sicilyfounded by a colony from Corinth-fell under the displeasure of the Athenians, who fitted out an armainent

The City of Alexandria.

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to punish its temerity. The expedition, however, was singularly unfortunate: removed. by a long voyage, from the possibility of obtaining regular supplies— harassed by attacks from the enemy, who were reinforced by succour from Sparta-the attempt proved a total failure, and the whole affair was but another of the disastrous episodes of this distracting portion of Grecian history. It is worthy of remark, as proving the defective state of navigation at this time, that the great argument of the opponents of the Sicilian expedition, when projected in Athens, was the impossibility of communicating with their countrymen, operating at so distant a spot, for no less a period than four entire months during the year!

Sparta, at a later period, shared the fate of Athens, being forced to succumb to the power of Thebes, under the generals Pelopidas and Epaminondas, and it was owing to the disputes ensuing between these various states of Greece, that Philip, King of Macedon, was enabled to reduce them all.

The ambitious views of that monarch were participated in by his son and successor Alexander. Chosen Generalissimo of the Greeks, after having subjected Thrace and destroyed Thebes, he declared war against Persia-marched into Asia-took Tyre, as we have before related, and mastered Egypt, Syria, Persia, and Media. He even penetrated to the Indian Ocean, and on returning to Babylon, laden with the spoils of the East, expired (B.C. 323). It was in a fine situation on the western bank of the Nile, and at no great distance from the coast of the Mediterranean, that he built a city called Alexandria, and which afterwards became

the capital of Egypt. It was enriched with the spoils of the Macedonian hero, who conveyed thither many of the stores of knowledge which he had obtained at Babylon and Tyre. And here we may remark, that however dreadful the contemplation of war, with all the desolation which must naturally attend its course, it is so ordained that even the sanguinary march of a conqueror, shall become, under Divine wisdom, productive of advantage to the world at large. The victories of Alexander opened new sources of knowledge; the engineers who accompanied him on his route, surveyed the countries they passed through, and committed their reports to writing, and the destruction which fell on Tyre and Babylon, caused the treasures of Phoenician and Chaldean knowledge to be drawn from the archives where they had been so jealously hidden, and laid open for the instruction of after

ages.

The enormous empire formed by Alexander could be held together only by the genius which created it. On his death it was broken up and divided among his generals. Dissensions again arose among the various states of Greece, till finally all became merged in the superior power of Rome. Even the colonies, planted by the various Grecian powers in the island, on the Asiatic coasts, and various parts of Italy, fell under the dominion of their conquerors; who, whilst they despised the character of the people they subdued, enervated by the riches and luxury procured from Asia, and with their ancient love of freedom and independence all but extinguished, yet could not but admire the wondrous learning, the perfection of art, the pure sense of the

Pytheas of Marseilles.

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beautiful which were still everywhere visible in the Grecian dominions. For years after the entire subjection of Greece, the patrician families of Rome were accustomed to send their sons to Athens to complete their education; and as Egypt and Phoenicia yielded up the science they had acquired to their conquerors, so did Greece in her turn become the instructress of the Romans.

Before terminating this period of our narration, we would call attention to the memory of a man who has earned the respect and admiration of later ages for one of the most astonishing enterprises on record, when we consider the time when it was projected, the disadvantages under which it was accomplished, and the privations and suffering which attended it. At the beginning of the fourth chapter, we referred to the origin of many of the Grecian colonies; among others, to that of Marseilles. About the time that Alexander was marching triumphantly from city to city, extending his dominion, and wasting blood and treasure, Pytheas of Massilia, a man versed in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and geography, ardently desiring to increase his knowledge, set forth upon a voyage of discovery. Coasting along the Mediterranean, he passed through the straits of Gibraltar, and entered the great ocean: skirting the shores of Spain and Gaul he reached England, called by the inhabitants Al fionn (Albion) or the white Land; thence sailing through the English Channel, he advanced into the northern seas, and discovered even more distant land that he called Thule, and which has been supposed by different authors to be either Jutland in Denmark, the Shetland Islands, Iceland, or Greenland.