posed history. On the other hand a certain want of skill in composition may be observed in it. Prose style does not arrive at perfection till much has been written, and with Herodotus it was still in its infancy. Nor must we seek in him for that depth of philosophical reflection which we find in Thucydides. Sometimes, indeed, he exhibits an almost childish credulity. Yet he had formed a high notion of the value of history, and was evidently a sincere lover of truth. He may sometimes have received the accounts of others with too trusting a simplicity, yet he always gives them for what they are worth, leaving the reader to form his own judgment, and often cautioning him as to their source and value. On the other hand, where he speaks from his own observation, his accounts may be implicitly relied upon; and many of them, which were formerly doubted as improbable, have been confirmed by the researches of modern travellers. In short, Herodotus is the Homer of history. He has all the majesty and simplicity of the great epic bard, and all the freshness and vivacity of colouring which mark the founder of a new literary epoch.

FROM THE EXPULSION OF THE PERSIANS TO THE DEATH OF THEMISTOCLES.

§ 1. Further proceedings against the Persians. § 2. Misconduct and treason of Pausanias. § 3. The maritime supremacy transferred to the Athenians. § 4. Confederacy of Delos. § 5. The combined fleet under Cimon. 6. Growth of the Athenian power. Plans of Themistocles. 87. Rebuilding of Athens. The Lacedæmonians attempt to prevent its being fortified. § 8. Fortification of Piræus. § 9. Strife of parties at Athens. Misconduct of Themistocles. § 10. He is ostracised. § 11. Pausanias convicted of Medism. § 12. Themistocles implicated in his guilt. He escapes into Asia. § 13. He is magnificently received by Artaxerxes. His death and character. § 14. Death of Aristides.

§ 1. THE last campaign had effectually delivered Greece from all fear of the Persian yoke; but the Persians still held some posts

from which it concerned both the interests and the honour of the Greeks to expel them. They were in possession of the island of Cyprus and of the important town of Byzantium; together with Eion on the Strymon, Doriscus, and several other places in Thrace. A fleet was therefore fitted out (B.c. 478) the year after the battle of Platea, and placed under the command of the Spartan regent, Pausanias. Of this fleet only twenty ships belonged to the Peloponnesians, whilst thirty, under the command of Aristides and Cimon, were furnished by Athens alone. After delivering most of the Grecian towns in Cyprus from the Persians, this armament sailed up the Bosporus and laid siege to Byzantium, which was garrisoned by a large Persian force commanded by some kinsmen of Xerxes. The town surrendered after a protracted siege; but it was during this expedition that the conduct of the Spartan commander struck a fatal blow at the interests of his country.

§ 2. The immense booty, as well as the renown, which Pausanias had acquired at Platæa, had filled him with pride and ambition. When he returned home, he felt it irksome to conform to the simplicity and sobriety of a Spartan life, and to submit to the commands of the Ephors. He had given a signal instance of the pride with which he was inflated by causing Simonides to attribute the glory of the Persian defeat solely to himself in the epigram which he composed for the tripod dedicated at Delphi; a piece of vanity which gave such offence to the Lacedæmonians that they caused the inscription to be erased, and another to be substituted in its place. Nevertheless, in spite of these symptoms, he had been again entrusted with the command. During the whole course of it his conduct was marked by the greatest vanity and insolence; towards the end it was also sullied by treason. After the capture of Byzantium, he put himself in communication with the Persian court, through Gongylus, an Eretrian exile and subject of Persia. He sent Gongylus clandestinely to Xerxes with those members of the royal family who had been taken at Byzantium, and assured the allies that they had escaped. At the same time he despatched the following letter to Xerxes:

"Pausanias, the Spartan commander, wishing to oblige thee, sends back these prisoners of war. I am minded, if it please thee, to marry thy daughter, and to bring Sparta, and the rest of Greece under thy dominion. This I hold myself able to do with the help of thy counsels. If, therefore, the project at all pleases thee, send down some trustworthy man to the coast, through whom we may carry on our future correspondence.”

Xerxes was highly delighted with this letter, and sent a reply

in which he urged Pausanias to pursue his project night and day, and promised to supply him with all the money and troops that might be needful for its execution. At the same time he appointed Artabazus, who had been second in command in Boeotia, to be satrap of Dascylium, where he would be able to co-operate with the Spartan commander. But the childish vanity of Pausanias betrayed his plot before it was ripe for execution. Elated by the confidence of Xerxes, and by the money with which he was lavishly supplied, he acted as if he had already married the Great King's daughter. He assumed the Persian dress; he made a progress through Thrace, attended by Persian and Egyptian guards; and copied, in the luxury of his table and the dissoluteness of his manners, the example of his adopted country. Above all, he offended the allies by his haughty reserve and imperiousness.

§3. His designs were now too manifest to escape attention. His proceedings reached the ears of the Spartans, who sent out Dorcis to supersede him. But when Dorcis arrived, he found that the allies had transferred the command of the fleet to the Athenians.

There were other reasons for this step besides the disgust occasioned by the conduct of Pausanias. Even before the battle of Salamis, the preponderating naval power of Athens had raised the question whether she was not entitled to the command at sea; and the victory gained there, under the auspices of Themistocles, had strengthened her claim to that distinction. But the delivery of the Ionian colonies from the Persian yoke was the immediate cause for her attaining it. The Ionians were not only attracted to Athens by affinity of race, but, from her naval superiority, regarded her as the only power capable of securing them in their newly acquired independence. Disgusted by the insolence of Pausanias, the Ionians now serving in the combined Grecian fleet addressed themselves to Aristides and Cimon, whose manners formed a striking contrast to those of the Spartan leader, and begged them to assume the command. Aristides was the more inclined to listen to this request as it was made precisely at the time when Pausanias was recalled. The Spartan squadron had accompanied him home; so that when Dorcis arrived with a few ships, he found himself in no condition to assert his pretensions.

§ 4. This event was not a mere empty question about a point of honour. It was a real revolution, terminated by a solemn league, of which Athens was to be the head; and though it is wrong to date the Athenian empire from this period, yet it cannot be doubted that this confederacy formed her first step towards

M

it.

Aristides took the lead in this matter, for which his proverbial justice and probity, and his conciliatory manners, eminently qualified him. The league obtained the name of "the Confederacy of Delos," from its being arranged that deputies of the allies belonging to it should meet periodically for deliberation in the temple of Apollo and Artemis in that island. The league was not, however, confined to the Ionians. It was joined by all who sought, in the maritime power of Athens, a protection against the attacks of Persia. Besides the Ionic islands of Samos and Chios, it was joined by Rhodes, Cos, Lesbos, and Tenedos. Among the continental towns belonging to it we find Miletus, the Greek towns on the peninsula of Chalcidice, and the recently delivered Byzantium. Each state was assessed in a certain contribution either of money or ships, as proposed by the Athenians and ratified by the Synod. The assessment was intrusted to Aristides, whose justice and impartiality were universally applauded. Of the details, however, we only know that the first assessment amounted to 460 talents (about 160,000l. sterling); that certain officers called Hellenotamiæ were appointed by the Athenians to collect and administer the contributions; that Delos was the treasury; and that the tax was called phoros; a name which afterwards became odious when the tribute was abused for the purposes of Athenian ambition.

Soon

§ 5. Such was the origin of the Confederacy of Delos. after its formation Aristides was succeeded in the command of the combined fleet by Cimon, whose first important action seems to have been the capture of Eion on the Strymon. This place was bravely defended by Boges, the Persian Governor, who refused all offers of capitulation; and when his provisions were exhausted and all further defence impracticable, he caused a large funeral pile to be kindled into which he cast his wives, his concubines, and children, and lastly himself.

The next event of any moment was the reduction of the island of Scyros, probably in B.c. 470. A portion of the inhabitants of Scyros, had been condemned by the Amphictyonic council as guilty of piracy, and in order to avoid payment of the fine imposed upon them, appealed to Cimon; who took possession of the island, and after expelling the natives, colonised it with Athenians. hero Theseus had been buried in Scyros; and now, by command of an oracle, his bones were disinterred and carried to Athens, where they were deposited with much solemnity in a temple called the Theseum, which exists at the present day.

The

§ 6. The isle of Scyros is small and barren, but its position and excellent harbour rendered it an important naval station. The occupation of it by the Athenians seems to have been the first