know Aristides personally, applied to him, and desired him to write the name of that citizen upon the shell, by which his vote was given against him. "Has he done you any wrong," said Aristides, "that you are for condemning him in this manner?" "No," replied the peasant, "but I hate to hear him always praised for his justice." Aristides, without saying a word more, calmly took the shell, wrote down his name upon it, and contentedly retired into exile. Themistocles, however, convinced of his uncommon merit, and willing to have the benefit of his counsels, was now as desirous of having him recalled, as ever he had been to see him banished; and these two great men, generously forgetting all their private feuds and animosities, resolved to exert their joint efforts in promoting the good of the public.

Themistocles saw that the enemy must be opposed by sea as well as by land; and to enable him to do this with the greater effect, he had lately caused a hundred galleys to be built, and turned all his thoughts towards the improvement of the navy. The Oracle had declared some time before, that Athens should only defend herself with wooden walls; and he took the advantage of this ambiguity to persuade his countrymen, that by such walls was only meant her shipping. The Lacedæmonians used no less industry in improving their navy; so that, upon the approach of Xerxes, the confederates found themselves possessed of a squadron of two huudred and eighty sail, the command of which was conferred upon Eurybiades, a Spartan.

The next point to be determined was, which was the most proper place for making the first stand against the enemy; and after some deliberation, the straits of Thermopyla were pitched upon for the purpose. This was a narrow pass of twenty-five feet broad, between Thessaly and Phocis, defended by the remains of an old wall, with gates to it, and remarkable for some hot baths, from whence the place had its name. The command of this important pass was given to Leonidas, one of the kings of Sparta, who led thither a body of six thousand men. Of these three hundred only were Spartans; the rest consisted of Boeotians, Corinthiaus, Phocians,

and other allies. This chosen band were taught from the beginning to look upon themselves as a forlorn hope, only placed there to check the progress of the enemy, and give them a foretaste of the desperate valour of Greece; nor were even oracles wanting to inspire them with enthusiastic ardour. It had been declared, that to procure the safety of Greece, it was necessary that a king, one of the descendants of Hercules, should die; and this task was now cheerfully undertaken by Leonidas, who, when he marched out of Lacedæmon, considered himself as a willing sacrifice offered up for the good of his country.

In the meantime, Xerxes advanced with his immense army, the very sight of which he thought would terrify the Greeks into submission, without his being obliged to strike a single blow. Great, therefore, was his surprise, when he found that a few desperate men were determined to dispute his passage through the Straits of Thermopyla. At first he could not believe they would persevere in their resolution; and he therefore gave them four days to reflect on their danger, hoping they would at last think it most prudent to retire. But when he found them remain immoveable at their post, he sent them a summons to deliver up their arms. Leonidas, with a true Spartan contempt, desired him "to come and take them." And when some people said that the Persian forces were so numerous that their very darts would darken the sun, "Then," replied Dieneces, a Spartan, "we shall fight in the shade."

Xerxes, provoked at these sarcasms, resolved to begin the attack immediately. The first assault was made by a body of Medes, but these were instantly repulsed with great slaughter. A body of ten thousand Persians, commonly known by the name of the Immortal Band, made another attempt to dislodge the Grecians, but with no better success than the former. In a word, the Greeks maintained their ground against the whole power of the Persian army for two days together; and would probably have maintained it much longer, had it not been for the treachery of Epialtes, a Trachinian, who, having deserted to the enemy, conducted a body

D

of twenty thousand Persians through a by-path to the top of a mountain that overhung the straits.

Leonidas seeing the enemy in this situation, plainly perceived that his post was no longer tenable. He therefore advised his allies to retire, and reserve themselves for better times, and the future safety of Greece. As for himself and his fellow Spartans, they were obliged by their laws not to fly; that he owed a life to his country, and that it was now his duty to fall in its defence. Thus, having dismissed all but his three hundred Spartans, with some Thespians and Thebans, in all not a thousand men, he exhorted his followers in the most cheerful manner to prepare for death. "Come, my fellow soldiers," says he, "let us dine cheerfully here, for to-night we shall sup with Pluto." His men, upon hearing his determined purpose, set up a loud shout as if they had been invited to a banquet, and resolved every man to sell his life as dearly as he could. The night now began to advance, and this was thought the most glorious opportunity of meeting death in the enemy's camp, where darkness, by hiding the smallness of their numbers, would fill the Persians with greater consternation. Thus resolved, they made directly to the Persian tents, and, in the silence of the night, had almost penetrated to the royal pavilion, with hopes of surprising the king. The obscurity added much to the horror of the scene; and the Persians, incapable of distinguishing friend from foe, fell furiously upon each other, and rather assisted than opposed the Greeks. Thus success seemed to crown the rashness of their enterprise, until the morning beginning to dawn, the light soon discovered the smallness of their numbers. They were soon, therefore, surrounded by the Persian forces, who fearing to fall in upon them, flung their javelins from every quarter, till the Greeks, not so much conquered, as tired with conquering, fell amidst heaps of the slaughtered enemy, leaving behind them an example of courage, to which there is no parallel to be found in history. Leonidas was one of the first that fell; and the endeavours of the Lacedæmonians to defend his dead body were incredible. It was found,

after the battle, buried under a mountain of the dead; and was nailed to a cross, by way of infamy, by the brutal victor. Of all the train two only escaped, whose names were Aristodemus and Panites. The latter was treated with such contempt on his return to Sparta, that he killed himself in despair. Aristodemus recovered his lost honour by his gallant behaviour at the battle of Platea. The loss of the Persians on this occasion is supposed to have amounted to twenty thousand men, among which were two of the king's brothers.

The very day on which the battle of Thermopyla was fought there was a naval engagement between the fleets of Greece and Persia, in which the former took or sunk thirty of the enemy's ships, and forced a hundred and seventy of them to sea, where, by stress of weather, they were all soon after either sunk or stranded.

Xerxes, however, having now passed the straits, found nothing capable of opposing his progress in the open country, and he therefore directed his march towards Athens, on which he was determined to take a signal vengeance. Themistocles, seeing the impossibility of defending this place, used all his eloquence and address in persuading his countrymen to abandon it for the present; and this he was at last able, though with no little difficulty, to effect. A decree was therefore passed, by which it was ordained, that Athens for a while should be given up in trust to the Gods; and that all the inhabitants, whether in freedom or slavery, should go on board the fleet. The young and adventurous set sail for Salamis; the old, the women and children, took shelter at Trezene, the inhabitants of which generously offered them an asylum. But in this general desertion of the city, that which raised the compassion of all was, the great number of old men they were obliged to leave in the place, on account of their age and infirmities. Many also voluntarily remained behind, believing that the citadel, which they had fortified with wooden walls, was what the Oracle pointed out for general safety. To heighten this scene of distress, the matrons were seen clinging with fond affection to the places where they had so long resided;

the women filled the streets with lamentations; and even the poor domestic animals seemed to take a part in the general concern. It was impossible to see those poor creatures run howling and crying after their masters, who were going on shipboard, without being strongly affected. Amongst these the faithfulness of a particular dog is recorded, who jumped into the sea after his master, and continued swimming as near as he could to the vessel, till he landed at Salamis, and died the moment after upon the shore.

Those few inhabitants that remained behind retired into the citadel, where literally interpreting the Oracle, they fortified it as well as they could, and patiently awaited the approach of the invader. Nor was it long 'before they saw him arrive at their gates, and summon them to surrender. This, however, they refused to do, or even to listen to any terms he proposed to them. The place was therefore taken by assault; all who were found in it were put to the sword, and the citadel was reduced to ashes.

But though the confederates had been thus obliged to abandon Athens to the fury of the enemy, they were by no means disposed to let them overrun the whole country. They took possession of Peloponnesus, built a wall across the isthmus that joined it to the continent, and committed the defence of that important post to Cleombrotus, the brother of Leonidas. In adopting this measure they were all of them unanimous, as being the most prudent that could be embraced. The case was not the same with regard to the operations of the fleet. Eurybiades was for bringing it into the neighbourhood of the isthmus, that so the sea and land forces might act in conjunction. Themistocles was of quite a different opinion, and maintained, that it would be the height of folly to abandon so advantageous a post as that of Salamis, where they were now stationed. They were now, he said, in possession of the narrow seas, where the number of the enemy's ships could never avail them; that the only hope now left the Athenians was their fleet, and that this must not capriciously be given up by ignorance to the enemy. Eurybiades, who considered