The good success of the battle of Marathon, where Themistocles was present, first kindled in his heart that thirst of glory, which followed him ever after, and sometimes carried him too far. The trophies of Miltiades, he said, left him no rest either by day or night. He resolved from that time to make his name and 'country illustrious by some great action, and render it superior to Lacedaemon, which had long lorded it over all Greece. With this view he judged it would be expedient to turn all the force of Athens towards the sea, seeing that as it was weak by land, that was the only means of making it necessary to its allies, and formidable to its enemies. Covering therefore his designs under the plausible pretext of the war against the Æginetæ, he caused a fleet of an hundred ships to be built, which soon after was a great instrument in contributing to the safety of Greece.

The inviolable affection Aristides bore to justice, obliged him upon several occasions to oppose Themistocles, who was not over scrupulous in that point, and managed so by his tricks and cabals, as to procure the banishment of Aristides. In this kind of judgment the citizens gave their votes by writing the name of the person upon a shell, in Greek called space, whence was derived the name of ostracism. A peasant upon this occasion who knew not how to write, and did not know Aristides, applied to himself, desiring he would put the name of. Aristides upon his shell. Why, says Aristides, has he done you any wrong, that you would thus condemn him? No, replied the other, I do not so much as know him, but I cannot endure to hear every body calling him Just. Aristides, without one word of answer, quietly takes his shell, writes his name upon it, and gives it to him back again. He took his leave with an earnest prayer, that the gods would not inflict any misfortune upon his country to make him regretted. The great Camillus in a like case did not follow his generosity, but offered up a quite different petition. [i] In exilium [¿] Liv. lib. 5. n. 32.

abut,

his return.

abiit, precatus, ab diis immortalibus, si innoxio sibi ea injuria fieret, primo quoque tempore desiderium sui civitati ingratæ facerent. " Going into banish"ment, he prayed the immortal gods that he was con"demned unjustly, they would take the earliest op portunity of making his ungrateful city regret his "loss." I shall hereafter examine what we are to think of the ostracism. Aristides was very soon recalled. The expedition of Xerxes against Greece hastened All the allies united their forces to repel the common enemy. They were then sensible how serviceable the prudent foresight of Themistocles was, who under another pretence had built an hundred gallies. They doubled this number upon the arrival of Xerxes. When they came to nominate the generalissimo, that was to command the fleet, the Athenians, who alone were masters of two thirds of the vessels, laid claim to the honour, and most justly. However, all the voices of the allies were unanimous in favour of Eurybiades the Lacedemonian. Themistocles, though young and very desirous of glory, judged that upon this occasion he ought to lay aside. his own interest for the common good of his country; and telling the Athenians, that if they behaved with courage, the Greeks would soon of their own accord confer the command upon them, he persuaded them to yield to the Lacedæmonians as he did. I have elsewhere related with what moderation and prudence this young Athenian behaved both in the council of war, and at the battle of Salamis, whereof he had all the honour, though he was not the commander in chief.

From that glorious victory the reputation and credit of the Athenians very much increased. They behaved with great modesty upon the occasion, and sought only to advance their power by honourable and just means Mardonius, who was left in Greece with an army of three hundred thousand men, made them very advantageous proposals in his master's name, to draw them off from the allies. He promised entirely

to

to rebuild their city, which had been burnt down, to supply them with large sums of money, and give them the command all over Greece. The Lacedæmoniaus terrified with the news, sent deputies to Athens, to dissuade them from a compliance, and offered to receive and provide for their wives, their children, and their old men, and furnish them with every thing else they wanted. Aristides was then in power. He answered that he excused the Barbarians, who valued nothing but gold and silver, for hoping to corrupt their fidelity by large promises; but he was surprised and displeased to see that the poverty and present misery of the Athenians should have such an effect upon the Lacedæmonians, as to make them forget so much their valour and generosity, as to imagine they stood in need of their exhortation to fight manfully for the common safety of Greece, from the view of any rewards that they could offer; that they should tell their . republic, that all the gold in the world could not tempt the Athenians, or make them abandon the defence of the common liberty; that they thanked the Lacedæmonians however for their obliging offers, but they should take care to put their allies to no expence. And then turning to the deputies of Mardonius, and stretching out his hand to the skies,

66

Know, says he, whilst yon sun shall continue his

course, the Athenians will be mortal enemies to the "Persians, and never cease to revenge upon them "the ravage of their lands, and the burning of their "houses and temples."

Themistocles in the mean time did not lose sight of the great project he had forined for supplanting the Lacedæmonians, and substituting the Athenians in their place; and without much concern about the choice of the means, he thought every thing just and good that promoted that end. One day in a full assembly of the citizens, he declared that he had a design of great importance, but could not communicate it to the people, because the success of it de pended upon its being kept secret; he desired there

fore

fore they would nominate somebody to whom he might explain himself. They all nanied Aristides, and referred themselves absolutely to his opinion. Themistocles, taking him aside, told him he thought of burning the Grecian fleet, which lay in a neighbouring port; and that if this was done, Athens would certainly become mistress of all Greece. Aristides returned to the assembly, and barely declared, that nothing in the world could be more advantageous than the project of Themistocles, nor any thing at the same time more unjust. The people with one consent forbad Themistocles to proceed in it any farther.

We see by this that the surname of Just was deseryedly conferred upon Aristides during his life-time; a title, says Plutarch, infinitely preferable to all that are pursued by the greatest conquerors with so much ardour, and in some measure bordering upon divinity. One day, as a verse of Eschylus was repeated upon the theatre, in which the poet, speaking of Amphiaraus, says, That he sought not to appear just, but to be so; the whole people immediately cast their eyes upon Aristides, and applied to him that admirable encomium.

The Persian army received a terrible blow in the famous battle of Platea. Out of three hundred thousand men commanded by Mardonius, scarce forty thousand escaped. Pausanias, one of the kings of Sparta, was at the head of the Grecian army. He behaved at that time with great equity and moderation, as appears from two stories related by [k] Herodotus, which are very particular.

After the victory of Platea, one of the principal citizens of Ægina advised him to revenge upon the body. of Mardonius the death of so many brave Spartans, as were slain at Thermopyla, and the unworthy treatment his uncle Leonidas had met with from Xerxes and Mardonius, who fixed his body to a gibbet. "Would you advise me then, says he, to imitate the "Barbarians in the thing we hate? If the esteem of "the Æginetæ is to be bought at so dear a rate, I

VOL. II.

[*] Lib. 5.
D d

"shall

shall be content with pleasing the Lacedæmonians, "who set a value only upon virtue and merit. As to "Leonidas and his companions, they are without "doubt sufficiently revenged by the blood of so many thousand Persians as have been slain in the "battle."

The second story is no less remarkable. Pausanias, who had found an immense booty in the camp of the enemy, ordered two entertainments of a very different kind to be served up in the small hall. In one was displayed at full length the magnificence of the Persians, rich beds, costly carpets, gold and silver vessels innumerable, a prodigious variety of meats dressed with all the delicacy imaginable, wines and liquors of all sorts. The other was very plain after the Spartan manner, that is bread and water, and at most the black-broth. Pausanias applying himself to the Greek officers, whom he had purposely invited, and pointing to the two different tables, "See, [1] says he to them, "the folly of the general of the Medes, though accustomed to dine upon such meals as these, he thought to conquer us, who live so hardily."

The advantage the Greeks had lately gained put them into a condition to send a fleet to the assistance of the allies, who were yet under the power of the Persians. This fleet was commanded by Pausanias the Lacedæmonian. Aristides and Cimon were the generals of the Athenians. They first set sail towards Cyprus, then to Byzantium, and took it; and in all places restored the allies to their liberty; but soon after fell themselves into a new kind of slavery. Pausanias, grown haughty upon the victories he had obtained, quitted the manners and customs of his country, assumed the habit and state of the Persians, and imitated their pomp and magnificence. He treated the allies with insupportable severity; spoke to the officers with a lofty and menacing air; required ex

[1] Ανδρες Ἕλληνες, τῶν δὲ εἵνεκα ἐγὼ ὑμέας συνήγαλον, βελόμενος ὑμῖν τοῦδε τοῦ Μήδων ἡγεμόνος τὴν ἀφροσύ‐

την δεῖξαι· ὃς τοιήνδε δίαιταν ἔχων, ἦλθη ἐς ἡμέας οὕτω οιζυρὴν ἔχοντας ἀπαιρησόμενος.

travagant