been so anxious to preserve the Athenians, I mean that of consulting their own private safety, without regarding the general interest of Greece. They proposed to fortify the isthmus of Peloponesus. But the Athenians remonstrating against so partial and ungenerous a proceeding, the Spartans readily gave up the point.

The Grecian army was now assembled to the number of seventy thousand men. Of these five thousand were Spartans, attended by thirty-five thousand Helots. The Athenians amounted to eight thousand, and the troops of the allies made up the rest. With this army the Greeks resolved to oppose Mardonius, though at the head of no less than three hundred thousand men. That general, fearing to be attacked in the hilly country of Attica, where he could not avail himself of his great superiority of numbers, had lately returned into Boeotia, and encamped his troops on the banks of the river Asopus. Thither he was pursued by the Grecians; but as neither side could begin the attack without encountering great disadvantages, the two armies continued in sight of each other for the space of ten days, both of them equally eager for a battle, and yet both afraid to strike the first blow.

It was during this interval that a mutiny had like to have arisen in the Grecian army about the post of honour. All parties allowed the Spartans the

command of the right wing; but the Tegaans alledged that they were better intitled, by their past services, to the command of the left, than the Athenians, who now occupied it. This dissention might have produced very fatal effects had it not been for the moderation and magnanimity of Aristides, who commanded the Athenians, and who addressed himself to the Spartans and the rest of the confe derates in the following manner : « It is not now a time, my friends, to dispute about the merit of past services; for all boasting is vain in the day of danger. Let it be the brave man's pride to own, that it is not the post or station which gives courage, or which can take it away. I head the Athenians; whatever post you shall assign us, we will maintain it, and will endeavour to make our station, wherever we are placed, the post of true honour and military glory. We are come hither not to con tend with our friends, but to fight with our enemies; not to boast of our ancestors, but to imitate them. This battle will distinguish the merit of each city; each commander, and the lowest sentinel will share the honour of the day ». This speech determined the council of war in favour of the Athenians, who thereupon were allowed to maintain their former station.

Meanwhile the Grecians, beginning to be straitened for want of water, resolved to retreat to a place where they might be more plentifully supplied with

that necessary article. As their removal was made in the night, much disorder ensued ; and in the morning, Mardonius construing their retreat into a flight, immediately pursued them, and coming up with them near the little city of Platæa, he attacked them with great impetuosity. His ardour, however, was soon checked by the Spartans, who brought up the rear of the Grecian army, and who throwing themselves into a phalanx, stood impenetrable and immoveable to all the assaults of the enemy. At the same time, the Athenians being informed of the attack, quickly turned back, and, after defeating a body of Greeks in Persian pay, they came to the assistance of the Spartans, just as these last had completed the overthrow of the enemy. For Mardonius, enraged at seeing his men give way, rush edinto the thickest of the ranks, in order to restore the battle and while he was doing so, he was killed by Aimnestus, a Spartan. Upon this the whole army betook themselves to flight. Artabazis, with a body of forty thousand men, fled towards the Hellespont; the rest retreated to their camp, and there endeavoured to defend themselves with wooden ramparts. But these being quickly broken down, the confederates rushed in upon them with irresistible fury, and eager to rid their country of such terrible invaders, they sternly refused them all quarter, and put upwards of a hundred thousand of them

;

to the sword. Thus ended the invasion of the Persians into Greece; nor ever after was an army from Persia seen to cross the Hellespont. We have already observed, that Aristides commanded the Athenians in this important action. The Spartans were headed by Cleombrotus, and Pausanias, Lacedæmonian, was the chief commander.

a

The battle was no sooner over, than the Greeks, to testify their gratitude to heaven, caused a statue of Jupiter to be made at the public expence, and placed in his temple at Olympia. On the right side of the pedestal were engraved the names of the several nations of Greece that were present in the engagement. The Spartans had the first place, the Athe nians the second, and all the rest succeeded in order.

The successes of the Greeks were as rapid as they were important. On the very evening of the day, on which the victory at Platæa was won, another, equally glorious, was obtained at Mycale on the coast of Ionia. After the defeat at Salamis, the remains of the Persian fleet retired to Samos; but the Greeks were not long in pursuing them. The confederates, on this occasion, were headed by Leotychides, the Spartan, and Xantippus, the Athenian. The Persians were no sooner informed of their approach, than, conscious of their own inferiority by sea, they drew up their ships upon dry land at Mycale, and fortified them with a wall and a deep

zrench, while they were at the same time protected by an army of sixty thousand men, under the command of Tigranes. But nothing could secure them from the fury of the Grecians, who immediately coming on shore, and dividing themselves into two bodies, the Athenians and Corinthians advanced directly on the plain, while the Lacedæmonians fetched a compass over hills and precipices, in order to take possession of a rising ground. But before these last arrived, the former had entirely put the enemy to flight, and now being joined by the Spartans, they soon forced their way through the Persian ramparts, and set all their ships on fire; sa that nothing could be more complete than the vic tory now obtained. Tigranes, the Persian general, with forty thousand of his men, lay dead upon the field of battle, the fleet was destroyed; and of the great army which Xerxes brought into Europe, scarce a single man remained to carry back to him the news of its defeat.

CHAP. VII.

From the victory at Mycale, to the peace concluded between the Greeks and Persians.

No sooner were the Greeks freed from the apprehensions of a foreign foe, than they began to entertain jealousies of each other ;

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