themselves to enforce the latter regulation, which was designed to prevent Athens from maintaining her superiority over the maritime states, and Thebes from becoming mistress of the Baotian cities (B. c. 387). The disgraceful peace of Antal'cidas, by which the Spartans resigned the free cities of Asia to a barbarian, in order to gratify their unworthy jealousies, sufficiently proves that the selfish policy inculcated by the laws of Lycur'gus was as ruinous as it was scandalous.

The city of Olyn'thus, in the Macedonian peninsula, having incurred the resentment of the Spartans, an army was sent to reduce it; but this was found no easy task; and it was not until after a war of four years, in which the Spartans suffered many severe defeats, that the Olynthians were forced to accept a peace on very humiliating conditions. In the course of this war, Phoe'bidas, a Spartan general, in violation of the laws of nations, seized the Cadmeía, or citadel of Thebes, then enjoying a profound peace; and his crime was justified and rewarded by Agesilaus (B. c. 383). The chief of the Theban patriots fled to Athens, where they were kindly received; an oligarchy of traitors was established under the protection of the Spartan garrison; and Thebes was doomed to the misery that Athens had endured under the thirty tyrants.

Pelop'idas, one of the Theban exiles, stimulated by the recent example of Thrasyb'lus, concerted, with a friend who had remained in Thebes, a bold plan for the liberation of his country. The most licentious of the tyrants were invited to a feast; and when they were hot with wine, the conspirators entered disguised as courtesans, and slew them in the midst of their debauchery (B. c. 378). The rest of the traitors met a similar fate; and the patriots being reinforced by an Athenian army, vigorously besieged the citadel, and soon forced the Lacedæmonian garrison to capitulate.

Cleombrótus was sent with a numerous army from Lacedæmon, in the depth of winter, to chastise the Thebans. The Athenians were beginning to repent of their having aided the revolters; but a perfidious attempt having been made by one of the Spartan generals to seize the Peiræ'us, as Phoʼbidas had the Cadmeía, the whole city of Athens was filled with just indignation, and the most vigorous preparations were made for war. Agesiláus himself repeatedly invaded Bœótia, without performing anything worthy of his former fame. Pelop'idas, who was chosen general by his grateful countrymen, won two splendid victories at Tanag'ra and Tegy'ra, though in the latter fight he had to encounter a vast disparity of force. The Athenians swept the Spartan navy from the seas, and infested the coasts of the Peloponnésus. The maritime states, disappointed in their expectations of independence, renewed their confederacy under the supremacy of Athens, and the invention of a new system of tactics by Iphic'rates, was fatal to the ancient superiority of the Lacedæmonian phalanx. Nothing, in short, could have saved Spar'ta from destruction, had not the Thebans, intoxicated with success, provoked hostility by their vaunting pride, and the cruelty with which they treated the cities of Bœótia.

A convention of all the Grecian states was summoned to Spar'ta, at the request of the Persian monarch, who wished to obtain aid from the chief republics in subduing an insurrection of the Egyptians (B. C.

372). The representative of the Thebans was Epaminon'das, the best military commander that Greece had yet produced, and the wisest statesman it had seen since the days of Per'icles. His eloquent denunciation of Spartan ambition produced a deep impression on the minds of the deputies, which all the ingenuity of Agesiláus could not remove; the assembly was dissolved without coming to any conclusion; but the influence of Sparta was destroyed for ever. Early in the following spring, Cleombrótus, who, during the sickness of Agesiláus had been appointed to the chief command, invaded Bœótia with a powerful army. Epaminon'das met him on the memorable field of Leuc'tra, and by attacking the long lines of the Lacedæmonians with massy columns, won a decisive victory, in which Cleombrótus himself was slain. The consequences of this battle were more important than the triumph itself; for all the states previously under the yoke of Spar'ta began openly to aspire at independence.

The Athenians, though justly enraged with the Spartans, were by no means satisfied with the result of the battle of Leuc'tra. They withdrew their friendship from the Thebans, who soon, however, found a more powerful ally in Jáson, the captain-general of Thessaly. This noble prince, who had planned the union of all the Grecian states into a single monarchy, of which he designed himself to be the head, joined the Thebans after the battle, and meditated a truce between them and the Spartans. He was planning further schemes of empire, when he was murdered by seven assassins in the presence of his army (B. C. 370). Two of the murderers were slain on the spot; five escaped by the fleetness of their horses, and were received in the Grecian republics as heroic assertors of liberty.

No peril more imminently threatened Spar'ta than the revolt of the Peloponnesian states which had hitherto tamely submitted to her authority; but it was dangerous to attempt their subjugation by force, lest they might combine together for mutual protection. These states were equally reluctant to encounter the hazards of war, until they had secured the support of a Theban army; and they sent pressing messages for aid to Bœótia. After some delay, Epaminon'das and Pelop'idas were sent into the Peloponnésus at the head of a powerful army, and they advanced without interruption into Lacónia, where the face of an enemy had not been seen for five centuries (B. c. 369). The whole country was laid desolate; but what was more afflicting to the Spartans even than these ravages, Epaminon'das rebuilt the ancient city of Messéne, placed a Theban garrison in its citadel, and called back the wreck of the Messenian nation to their native land, where they watched every favorable occasion for wreaking their vengeance on their oppressors. Scarcely had this great enterprise been accomplished, when the Theban generals heard that the Athenians had not only entered into alliance with the Spartans, but had sent a large army to their aid, under the command of Iphic'rates. They immediately evacuated Lacónia, and returned home laden with plunder through the isthmus of Corinth, meeting no interruption from Iphic'rates, who led his forces by a different road. The Thebans, instead of receiving their illustrious generals with gratitude, brought them to trial for having continued their command beyond the time limited by law. Pelop'idas lost his pres

ence of mind, and escaped with difficulty; but Epaminon'das, proudly recounting his heroic deeds, awed his accusers into silence, and was conducted home in triumph.

The Peloponnesian war lingered during the six following years. The Spartans were engaged in punishing their revolted subjects in Lacónia; the Thebans were involved in a difficult struggle against Alexan'der, the tyrant of Phéræ, who had succeeded to the influence of Jáson in Thessaly, and Ptolemy, the usurper of the throne of Macedon. Pelop'idas was intrusted with the command of the army sent to regulate these difficulties. He forced Alexan'der to submit to the terms of peace imposed by the Theban senate, and he restored Per'diccas, the legitimate heir, to the throne of Macedon. To secure the Theban interest in the north, he brought home with him several of the Macedonian princes and nobles as hostages, among whom was Philip, the younger brother of Per'diccas, and future conqueror of Greece. On his return, Pelop'idas was treacherously seized by the tyrant of Phéræ, and thrown into prison; nor was he liberated until Epaminon'das, after the defeat of many inferior leaders, was sent into Thessaly, where he soon forced the tyrant Alexan'der to unconditional submission. Pelop'idas, after his liberation, was sent as an ambassador to Persia, where his eloquence so charmed Artaxer'xes, that he broke off his alliance with Spar'ta and concluded a league with the Thebans. The greater number of the Grecian states refused to accede to this union, partly from their ancient hostility to Persia, partly from jealousy of Thebes. Epaminon'das was therefore sent a third time into the Peloponnésus with a powerful army, to revive the spirit of the former confederacy against Sparta (B. c. 366). He wasted much precious time in trying to obtain a naval power, and he was long prevented from undertaking any enterprise of importance by the jealousy and dissensions of his allies, especially the Arcadians. While he was thus employed, his colleague Pelop'idas fell in a battle against Alexan'der, the tyrant of Phéræ (B. c. 364); and the Thebans, through sorrow for his death, made no public rejoicings for their victory. His loss was poorly compensated by the destruction of the tyrant, who was soon after murdered by his own family.

In the following year, Epaminon'das entered upon his last campaign, by marching against the Peloponnesian states which had separated from the Theban alliance. Knowing the unprotected condition of Sparta, he made a forced march, and appeared before the city while the army was at a considerable distance. His attack was fierce; but it was repelled by the valor of Archid'amus, the son of Agesiláus, who, with a handful of men, compelled the Thebans to retreat. Foiled in this attempt, he resolved to surprise the wealthy city of Mantina'a; and would have succeeded, had not a squadron of Athenian cavalry accidentally reached the place a little before the appearance of the Thebans, and by their determined valor baffled the utmost efforts of the assailants. These repeated disappointments induced Epaminon'das to hazard a pitched battle. It was fought in the neighborhood of Mantina'a, and was the most arduous and sanguinary contest in which the Greeks had yet engaged. Epaminon'das fell in the arms of victory ; and the Thebans, neglecting to pursue their advantages, rendered this

sanguinary struggle indecisive, and productive of no other consequence than a general languor and debility in all the Grecian states. The glory of Thebes perished with the two great men who had raised her to fame a general peace was established by the mediation of Artaxer'xes (B. c. 362), on the single condition, that each republic should retain its respective possessions.

Spar'ta was anxious to recover Messénia; but this being opposed by the Persian king, Agesilaus, to punish Artaxer'xes, led an army into Egypt, where he supported one rebel after another, and acquired considerable wealth in this dishonorable war. On his return home, he died in an obscure port on the Cyreniac coast, at the advanced age of eighty-four years (B. c. 361). At the commencement of his reign, Sparta had attained the summit of her greatness; at its close, she had sunk into hopeless weakness: and, notwithstanding all the praise bestowed upon this monarch by the eloquent Xen'ophon, it is undeniable that most of Spar'ta's misfortunes were owing to the ambition, the obstinacy, and the perfidy of Agesiláus.

SECTION VI.-The Second Sacred War.-Destruction of Grecian Freedom.

FROM B. C. 361 TO B. c. 336.

SCARCELY had the third Peloponnesian war terminated, when the Athenians, by their tyranny and rapacity toward the maritime states, were deprived of all the advantages they had derived from the patriotism of Cónon. Cháres, a blustering, vulgar demagogue, raised to power by pandering to the passions of a licentious populace, exhorted his countrymen to supply their exhausted treasury by plundering the wealth of their allies and colonies. This counsel was too faithfully obeyed. The weaker states complained; but the islands of Chíos, Cos, and Rhodes, together with the city of Byzan'tium, prepared openly to revolt, and entered into a league for their mutual protection (B. c. 358). Cháres was sent to chastise the insurgents: he laid siege to the city of Chíos, but was driven from its walls with disgrace and loss; Chábrias, the best leader that the Athenians possessed, falling in the engagement. The insurgents, encouraged by this success, began to assume the offensive, and to ravage the islands that remained faithful to Athens. A new armament was prepared to check their progress, and it was intrusted to the joint command of Cháres, Timótheus, and Iphic'rates; but Cháres, having been hindered by his colleagues from hazarding a battle off Byzan'tium under very favorable circumstances, procured their recall, and had them brought to trial upon a charge of treachery and cowardice. Venal orators conducted the prosecution; and a degraded people sentenced the two illustrious commanders to pay an exorbitant fine. They both retired into voluntary exile, and never again entered the service of their ungrateful country. Cháres, left uncontrolled, wholly neglected the commission with which he had been intrusted, and hired himself and his troops to the satrap Artabázus, then in rebellion against Artaxer'xes O'chus, king of Persia. This completed the ruin of the Athenians. O'chus threatened them with the whole weight of his resentment, unless they instantly recalled their

armament from the East, and with this mandate the degraded republicans were forced to comply (B. c. 356). The confederate states regained complete freedom and independence, which they preserved for twenty years, when they, with the rest of Greece, fell under the dominion of the Macedonians.

Sparta, Thebes, and Athens, having successively lost their supremacy, the Amphictyonic council, which for more than a century had been a mere pageant, began to exercise an important influence in the affairs of Greece. They issued a decree subjecting the Phocians to a heavy fine for cultivating some lands that had been consecrated to Apollo, and imposing a similar penalty on the Spartans for their treacherous occupation of the Cadmeía (B. c. 357). The Phocians, animated by their leader Philomélus, and secretly encouraged by the Spartans, not only refused obedience, but had recourse to arms. In defiance of the prejudices of the age, Philomélus stormed the city of Del'phi, plundered the sacred treasury, and employed its wealth in raising an army of mercenary adventurers. The Thebans and Locrians were foremost in avenging this insult to the national religion; but the war was rather a series of petty skirmishes than regular battles. It was chiefly remarkable for the sanguinary spirit displayed on both sides; the Thebans murdering their captives as sacrilegious wretches; the Phocians retaliating these cruelties on all the captives that fell into their hands. At length Philomélus, being forced to a general engagement under disadvantageous circumstances, was surrounded, and on the point of being made prisoner, when he threw himself headlong from a rock, to escape falling into the hands of his enemies (B. c. 353). Onomar'chus, the lieutenant and brother of the Phocian general, safely conducted the remnant of the army to the fastnesses of Del'phi. He proved an able and prudent leader. With the treasures of the Delphic temple he purchased the aid of Ly'cophron, the chief of the Thessalian princess; and, thus supported, he committed fearful ravages in the territories of Boótia and Lócris. The Thebans, in great distress, applied for aid to Philip, king of Macedon, who had long sought a pretext for interfering in the affairs of Greece (B. c. 352): he marched immediately to their relief, completely routed the Phocians in the plains of Thessaly, and suspended from a gibbet the body of Onomar'chus which was found among the slain. He dared not, however, pursue his advantages further; for he knew that an attempt to pass the straits of Thermop'yla would expose him to the hostility of all the Grecian states which he was not yet prepared to encounter.

Phayl'lus, the brother of the two preceding leaders of the Phocians, renewed the war, and again became formidable. Philip, under the pretence of checking his progress, attempted to seize Thermop'ylæ; but had the mortification to find the straits pre-occupied by the Athenians. He returned home, apparently wearied of Grecian politics; but he had purchased the services of venal orators, whose intrigues soon afforded him a plausible pretext for renewed interference. The war lingered for two or three years; the treasures of the Delphic temple began to fail, and the Phocians longed for peace. But the vengeance of the Thebans was insatiable: they besought Philip to crush the impious profaners of the temple; and that prince, having lulled the suspicions of