Hysti the greatness of any crimes he had afterwards committed. æus was one of those restless, bold, and enterprising spirits, in whom many good qualities are joined with still greater vices; with whom all means are lawful and good, that promote the end they have in view; who look upon justice, probity, and sincerity, as mere empty names: who make no scruple to employ lying or fraud, treachery or even perjury, when it is to serve their turn; and who reckon the ruin of nations, or even their own country, as nothing, if necessary to their own elevation. His end was worthy his senti. ments, and such as is common enough to those irreligious politicians, who sacrifice every thing to their ambition, and acknowledge no other rule of their actions, and hardly any other God, than their interest and fortune. A. M. 3510. SECTION VII. The expedition of Darius's army against Greece. upon Darius, in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, Ant. J. C. 494. having recalled all his other generals, sent Mardonius the son of Gobryas, a young lord of an illustrious Persian family who had lately married one of the king's daughters, to command in chief throughout all the maritime parts of Asia, with a particular order to invade Greece, and to revenge the burning of Sardis the Athenians and Eretrians. The king did not show much wisdom in this choice, by which he preferred a young man, because he was a favourite, to all his oldest and most experienced generals; especially in so difficult a war, the success of which he had very much at heart, and wherein the glory of his reign was infinitely concerned. His being son-in-law to the king was a quality, indeed, that might augment his influence, but added nothing to his real merit, or his capacity as a general. Upon his arrival in Macedonia, into which he had marched with his land forces after having passed through Thrace, the whole country, terrified by his power, submitted. But his fleet attempting to double mount Athos (now called Capo Santo,) in order to gain the coasts of Macedonia, was attacked by so violent a storm, that upwards of 300 ships, with above 20,000 men, perished in the sea. His land army met at the same time with no less fatal a blow. For, being encamped in a place of no security, the Thracians attacked the Persian camp by night, made a great slaughter, and wounded Mardonius himself. All this ill success obliged him shortly after to return into Asia, with grief and confusion at his having miscarried both by sea and land in this expedition. Darius perceiving, too late, that Mardonius's youth and inexperience had occasioned the defeat of his troops, recalled him, and put two other generals in his place, Datis, a Mede, and Artaphernes, son of his brother Artaphernes, who had been governor of Sardis. The * Herod 1. vi. c. 43. 45 king's thoughts were earnestly bent upon putting in execution the great design he had long had in his mind, which was, to attack Greece with all his forces, and particularly to take a signal ven geance on the people of Athens and Eretria, whose enterprise against Sardis was perpetually in his thoughts. 1. The State of Athens. The characters of Miltiades, Themistocles, and Aristides. Before we enter upon this war, it will be proper to refresh our memories with a view of the state of Athens at this time, which alone sustained the first shock of the Persians at Marathon; as also to form some idea beforehand of the great men who shared in that celebrated victory. Athens, just delivered from that yoke of servitude which she had been forced to bear for above thirty years, under the tyranny of Pisistratus and his children, now peaceably enjoyed the advantages of liberty, the sweetness and value of which were only heightened and improved by that short privation. Lacedæmon, which was at this time the mistress of Greece, and had contributed at first to this happy change in Athens, seemed afterwards to repent of her good offices; and growing jealous of the tranquillity she herself had procured for her neighbours, she attempted to disturb it, by endeavouring to reinstate Hippias, the son of Pisistratus, in the government of Athens. But all her attempts were fruitless, and served only to manifest her ill-will, and her grief to see Athens determined to maintain its independence even of Sparta itself. Hippias hereupon had recourse to the Persians. Artaphernes, governor of Sardis, sent the Athenians word, as we have already mentioned, that they must re-establish Hippias in his authority, unless they chose rather to draw the whole power of Darius upon them. This second attempt succeeded no better than the first, and Hippias was obliged to wait for a more favourable juncture. We shall see presently that he served as a conductor or guide to the Persian generais sent by Darius against Greece. Athens, from the time of the recovery of her liberty, was quite another city than under her tyrants, and displayed a very different kind of spirit. Among the citizens,* Miltiades distinguished himself most in the war with the Persians, which we are going to relate. He was the son of Cimon, an illustrious Athenian. This Cimon had a half-brother by the mother's side, whose name was likewise Miltiades, of a very ancient and noble family in Egina, who had lately been received into the number of the Athenian citizens. He was a person of great credit even in the time of Pisistratus; but, as he could not endure the yoke of a despotic government, he joyfully embraced the offer made him, of going to settle with a co * Herod, l. vi. c. 34. 41. Corn Nep. in Mil. cap. i.-iii. lony in the Thracian Chersonesus, whither he was invited by the Dolonci, the inhabitants of that country, to be their king, or, according to the language of those times, their tyrant. He, dying without children, left the sovereignty to Stesagoras, his nephew, the eldest son of his brother Cimon; and Stesagoras dying also without issue, the sons of Pisistratus, who then ruled the city of Athens, sent his brother Miltiades, the person we are now speaking of, into that country to be his successor. He arrived there, and established himself in the government in the same year that Darius undertook his expedition against the Scythians. He attended that prince with some ships as far as the Danube; and it was he who advised the Ionians to destroy the bridge, and to return home without waiting for Darius. During his residence in the Chersonesus, he married Hegesipyla,* daughter of Olorus, a Thracian king in the neighbourhood, by whom he had Cimon, the famous Athenian general, of whom a great deal will be said in the sequel. Miltiades, having for several reasons abdicated his government in Thrace, embarked, and took all that he had on board five ships, and set sail for Athens. There he settled a second time, and acquired great reputation. At the same time two other citizens,† younger than Miltiades, began to distinguish themselves at Athens, namely, Aristides and Themistocles. Plutarch observes, that the former of these two had endeavoured to form himself upon the model of Clisthenes, one of the greatest men of his time, and a zealous defender of liberty, who had greatly contributed to the restoring it at Athens, by expelling the Pisistratidæ out of that city. It was an excellent custom among the ancients, and which it were to be wished might prevail amongst us, that the young men, ambitious of public employments, particularly attached themselves to such aged and experienced persons, as had distinguished themselves most eminently therein; and who, both by their conversation and example, could teach them the art of condicting themselves, and governing others with wisdom and discretion. Thus, says Plutarch, did Aristides attach himself to Clisthenes, and Cimon to Aristides; and he enumerates several others, and among the rest Polybius, whom we have mentioned so often, and who in his youth was the constant disciple, and faithful imitator, of the celebrated Philopomen. Themistocles and Aristides were of very different dispositions, but they both rendered great services to the commonwealth. Themistocles who, naturally inclined to popular government, omitted nothing that could contribute to render him agreeable to the people, and to gain him friends; behaving himself with great affability and *After the death of Miltiades, this princess had by a second husband a son, who was called Olorus, after the name of his grandfather, and who was the father of Thucydides the historian.' Herod. † Plut. in Arist. p. 319, 320; & in Them. p. 112, 113. An seni sit ger. Resp. p. 790, 791 Dicere à peritis, sequi optimos. Tacit. in Agric. complaisance to every body, always ready to do service to the citizens, every one of whom he knew by name; nor was he very nice about the means he used to oblige them. Somebody talking with him once on this subject,* told him he would make an excellent magistrate, if his behaviour towards the citizens was more impartial, and if he was not biassed in favour of one more than another: God forbid, replied Themistocles, I should ever set upon a tribunal, where my friends should find no more credit or favour than strangers. Cleon, who appeared some time after at Athens, observed a quite different conduct, but yet such as was not wholly exempt from blame. When he came into the administration of public affairs, he assembled all his friends, and declared to them, that from that moment he renounced their friendship, lest it should prove an obstacle to him in the discharge of his duty, and cause him to act with partiality and injustice. This was doing them very little honour, and entertaining no very high opinion of them. But, as Plutarch says, it was not his friends, but his passions, that he ought to have renounced. Aristides had the discretion to observe a just medium between these two vicious extremes. Being a favourer of aristocracy, in imitation of Lycurgus, whom he greatly admired, he in a manner struck out a new path of his own; not endeavouring to oblige his friends at the expense of justice, and yet always ready to do them service when consistent with it. He carefully avoided making use of his friends' recommendations for obtaining employments, lest it should prove a dangerous obligation upon him, as well as a plausible pretext for them to require the same favour from him on the like occasion. He used to say, that the true citizen, or the honest man, ought to make no other use of his credit and power, than upon all occasions to practise what was honest and just, and engage others to do the same. Considering this contrariety of principles and humours, we are not to wonder, if, during the administration of these great men, there was a continual opposition between them. Themistocles who was bold and enterprising, was sure almost always to find Aristides against him, who thought himself obliged to thwart the other's designs, even sometimes when they were just and beneficial to the public, lest he should gain too great an ascendant and authority, which might become pernicious to the commonwealth. One day, having got the better of Themistocles, who had made some proposal really advantageous to the state, he could not contain himself, but cried aloud as he went out of the assembly, that the Athenians would never prosper, till they threw them both into Barathrum; the Barathrum was a pit, into which malefactors con demned to die were thrown. But notwithstanding this mutual opposition, when the common interest was at stake, they were no * Cic. de Senect. Plut. An seni sit ger. Resp. p.806, 807 t Plut. Apophthegm.p 186. Jonger enemies: and whenever they were to take the field, or en gage in any expedition, they agreed together to lay aside all differences on leaving the city, and to be at liberty to resume them on their return, if they thought fit. The predominant passion of Themistocles was ambition and the love of glory, which discovered itself from his childhood. After the battle of Marathron, of which we shall speak presently, when the people were every where extolling the valour and conduct of Miltiades, who had won it, Themistocles generally appeared very thoughtful and melancholy he spent whole nights without sleep, and was never seen at public feasts and entertainments as usual. When his friends, astonished at this change, asked him the reason of it, he made answer, that Miltiades's trophies would not let him sleep. These were a kind of spur, which never ceased to goad and animate his ambition. From this time Themistocles addicted himself wholly to arms; and the love of martial glory wholly engrossed him. As for Aristides, the love of the public good was the great spring of all his actions. What he was most particularly admired for, was his constancy and steadiness under the unforeseen changes to which those who have the administration of public affairs are exposed: for he was neither elevated with the honours conferred upon him, nor cast down at the contempt and disappointments he sometimes experienced. On all occasions he preserved his usual calmness and temper, being persuaded, that a man ought to give himself up entirely to his country, and to serve it with a perfect disinterestedness, as well with regard to glory as to riches. The general esteem in which he was held for the uprightness of his intentions, the purity of his zeal for the interests of the state, and the sincerity of his virtue, appeared one day in the theatre, when one of Æschylus's plays was acting. For when the actor had repeated that verse which describes the character of Amphiaraus, He does not desire to seem an honest and virtuous man, but really to be so, the whole audience cast their eyes upon Aristides, and applied the eulogium to him. Another thing related of him, with respect to a public employment, is very remarkable. He was no sooner made treasurer-general of the republic, than he made it appear that his predecessors in that office had cheated the state of vast sums of money, and, among the rest, Themistocles in particular; for this great man, with all his merit, was not irreproachable on that head. For which reason, when Aristides came to pass his accounts, Themistocles raised a powerful faction against him, accused him of having embezzled the public treasure, and prevailed so far as to have him condemned and fined. But the principal inhabitants, and the most virtuous part of the citizens, rising up against so unjust a sentence, not only the judgment was reversed, and the fine remitted, but he was elected treasurer again for the year ensuing. He then seemed to repent |